Question
Gramps,
I was studying Luke 2 this Christmas Season, and was a little struck by the description of a devout temple worker within, starting verse 36: “…there was one Anna, a prophetess, (…, 37) …she was a widow of about fourscore and four years, which departed not from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day.”
Could she have received visions, same as a prophet? If so, could we have prophetesses in modern times, someday?
Harrison
Answer
Harrison,
Thank you for the question.
Are you asking about being a “prophet” or being “The Prophet”? These are two different things.
The Biblical use of the word “prophet/prophetess” doesn’t have the same connotations as it does in the modern Church. Biblically, a prophet was someone who had supernatural gifts from God at a level that was above the norm.
To illustrate, have you ever wondered what the difference is between giving a priesthood blessing of healing vs. having the “Gift of Healing”? (1 Corinthians12). It seems that people can have special gifts from the Lord while they don’t necessarily hold the priesthood. One gift of the Spirit is: Prophecy (v. 10).
What is prophecy? It is the divine ability to speak unknown truths.
But behold, the Lord God poured in his Spirit into my soul, insomuch that I did confound him in all his words. (Jacob 7:8)
The Lord gave Jacob additional understanding and knowledge when contending with Sherem. Without that gift, Jacob was just a man who was probably not Sherem’s equal in the skills of debate. But with God’s power and wisdom behind him, he was able to confound Sherem.
If you recall the episode of Jesus speaking with the Samaritan woman at the well:
16 Jesus saith unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither.
17 The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband:
18 For thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly.
19 The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet. (John 4:16-19)
Compare that to how we use it today. The meaning of the word “prophet” today tends to mean either the President of the Church or any of the 15 Apostles. The fact that Jesus had perception beyond the five senses was what impressed the Samaritan woman to call him a prophet. So, just a bit different.
Likewise, Anna was also gifted with a perception of divine things. And it seemed that she was also one who would prepare the way of the Lord. People knew her. They knew of her gift. And she waited for many years to be able to witness that the Great Deliverer had come.
Your question appears to ask if we will have a female prophet who will lead the Church today just as Pres. Nelson does today. All the light and knowledge we have thus far seem to say that women will not be ordained to any priesthood office in mortality. There are many theories as to why.
The only place where that is not so is in temple work. And that is only allowed for the practicality of separating the sexes. Additionally, you may want to ponder why the only temple attendant in the Celestial Room is a female. Rarely will you see a male temple worker just “hanging out” in the Celestial Room.
Beyond that, everything we do know of the priesthood is that it is patriarchal in nature, and thus will be limited to males. While I can’t with 100% certainty state that this will never change no matter what, I have heard precisely zero indication that this will change any time soon.
Gramps
